Pachauri case: Complainant disappointed with TERI’s inaction

New Delhi, Nov. 4 : Prashant Mendiratta, the complainant’s lawyer in the sexual harassment case involving R.K. Pachauri, today said that the victim resigned from TERI as she was extremely disturbed that no action was initiated against the environmentalist post the matter.

“She is extremely disappointed with the way TERI has handled the case. TERI could have handled the case more professionally. They did not look after her interest at all. In fact, she was not being paid salary for past many months and her work profile had been changed without even asking her or without even discussing it with her which is extremely sad,” he said.

“Subsequently what happened was that she was expecting the governing council to support her case and ask Mr. Pachauri to stay away from TERI or at least suspend him till the time the investigation was not concluded by the police. Unfortunately, that also did not happen. So because of sheer disappointment, she has decided to tender her resignation,” he added.

Mendiratta also said the complainant has mentioned in her resignation letter that she would take all the cases, civil as well as criminal, to its logical end.

“She will not give up the fight. She will keep fighting the cases on her own and she will take them to a logical end,” he said.

The 29-year-old complainant in her resignation expressed anguish over the conduct of Teri’s governing council.

“The governing council too let me down in an unprecedented way,” she said in her resignation letter.

She also stated that her ‘work profile’ was changed and added that the organization ‘played deaf to my requests for not doing so’.

“I was given zero explanation of taking such an action and none of my emails/requests were heeded to. I only got vague responses,” she wrote.

The victim further said in her letter that she ‘refuses to be associated with an organization’ which did ‘nothing to ensure’ that her ‘career is not harmed’. Instead, the organisation ‘harmed me mentally, professionally and financially’, she said.

On February 13, an FIR was registered against Pachauri on charges of sexual harassment under IPC Sections 354, 354(a), 354(d) (molestation) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

TERI’s governing council later on July 23 appointed Dr Ajay Mathur as the director general in Pachauri’s place.

Pachauri had also stepped down from United Nations’ IPCC and the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. (ANI)